by Christopher Piehler

A quick look at whether our readers have adopted this imaging technology

Every issue of this magazine presents readers with new, ever-advancing products, but how many orthodontists actually use anything beyond basic brackets and wires in their practices? To find out, Orthodontic Products has launched a series of reader surveys that will continue throughout the year.

The goal of our second survey was to discover if and how our readers use digital intraoral scanners. To gather our data, we sent an e-mail survey to our subscribers, with the incentive of a $50 gift card for filling it out. We received a total of 167 responses, although not all respondents answered all of the questions (and some questions allowed for more than one answer).

In the accompanying charts, each answer is labeled with the percentage of respondents who gave that answer. Here’s what they said.

The Digital Introral Scanner Usage Survey is available as a downloadable pdf – you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view this.

Get Adobe ReaderIf you do not have Adobe Acrobat on your computer, you can download it for free from Adobe.com.

All in all, this survey suggests that digital intraoral scanning is a technology near the beginning of its life cycle. A minority of our readers have adopted it, and those who have tend to use it only on brand-specific cases.

If new products come on the market as anticipated and the number of users grows as our data suggests, the next few years will see this technology become more widespread. Whether it becomes the industry-wide standard of care will depend on how many orthodontists decide that the cost is worth the benefits it provides.

To find contact information for all of the companies mentioned here, visit our Buyer’s Guide.